


Bane of Thanos

by ladysilvrene



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Canon-Typical Violence, Civil War Fix-It, Fix-It, Gen, Mind Control, Time Travel Fix-It, maybe less violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-09-30 12:13:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17223890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladysilvrene/pseuds/ladysilvrene
Summary: After the devastation of Infinity War, Thor wakes up disoriented in a hospital room in Puente Antiguo, years earlier, and recognizes that he has a chance to give the people of the universe a fighting chance against Thanos. It doesn't take much before the changes he causes render the universe almost unrecognizable - but even as his knowledge of the future becomes less and less reliable, he sees that his family and friends are stronger than ever before, far more prepared to face Thanos.He can only hope that it's enough that he won't ever have to see that devastation again.





	1. Thor

**Author's Note:**

> I was rewatching IW and one of the scenes where Bruce Banner is fighting with Hulk made me think of a lot of the Bruce & Hulk fics I'd read, where someone (usually Tony) convinces Bruce to actually get to know Hulk, and actually train as Hulk instead of just relying on brute strength and size, which then got me to thinking... What if someone experienced all of IW, and in the aftermath had a way to go back and fix it - help Bruce gain a better understanding of his other half, help kick Hydra out of all the nooks and crannies they'd wormed into, help build better bonds between teammates so the events of Civil War don't happen again, help prepare for the future...  
> We'll see how this goes, if it gets anywhere.

His head ached, and the light was bright and blinding, but it wasn't completely unfamiliar. The adhesives stuck to his skin - those were Midgardian, holding electrodes to his chest connected to the beeping monitors beside him.

The last thing he remembered was that horrible moment in Wakanda, when so many great warriors turned to nothing but ash...

Thanos had much to pay for.

 

He slowly sat up in his bed, and his vision swam for a moment before he got his bearings. He was someplace he found familiar, but could not place. Around him, nurses wearing scrubs and a doctor wearing a lab coat were milling about, but his movement caught their attention.

One of the nurses came up on his right arm. "Hi. I just need to take a little blood."

Stunned, he sat there for a moment, looking around at the room. This was the hospital room he'd woken up in after his father had stripped him of Mjolnir and his raiments and banished him to Midgard. Quietly he submitted to examination, remembering the humiliation of having been drugged and restrained.

"Are my friends still here, the ones who brought me in here?" he asked when the examination was finished.

The nurses looked at each other, and then back at Thor. "We can check for you if you'd like?"

He smiled weakly. "Thank you."

When the nurse returned, he could tell by the disappointment on their face what they were going to tell him. "I'm sorry, but when they were told you'd have to be kept here overnight for observation, they left. They might be back tomorrow?"

"Thank you for checking on this for me."

 

He tossed and turned all night, horrible dreams disrupting his sleep, reminding him of what was to come. It didn't help that 'keeping him overnight for observation', when he wasn't drugged due to his violent outbursts, was interrupted by having the nurses come in and check on him. Even with all this, when morning arrived and he was handed clothes to wear out of the hospital, he was no closer to figuring out the best course of action.

And then, as he was about to leave his hospital room, he felt someone collide with his chest.

"Eeep!"

_Jane-!_

He took a step back, put on his most confident smirk, and joked "Ah, back for another round, I see!"

"Hey, my tazer is ready for you any time, so just try me!"

_And Darcy-!_

"That was a joke, I apologize. And furthermore I apologize for my reaction last night, I was... disoriented."

"It's alright," Jane said, "we weren't hurt - and thankfully you seem fine - and by the way I wanted to ask you-"

And Erik interjected, "now before we interrogate him, Jane, maybe we should feed the man breakfast."

Jane rolled her eyes, but gestured towards the exit. "Alright, food and then questions!"

 

The little cafe was just as he remembered it, and he gave it a broad grin. The food was delicious and filling, and he enjoyed the banter from his first friends on Midgard after his banishment. As the meal continued, he found himself surprised when he realized that though his memories spanned several years into the future, he had the muscle memory appropriate for the time he found himself in - but thankfully, he caught himself before he actually threw the mug to the ground.

"Ah- I'm glad I didn't forget myself," he said. "It is customary in the dining halls of my home - using metal, and therefore unbreakable, tableware - to throw a cup to the ground upon finishing a drink, as a compliment."

Darcy, who he remembered had jumped the most when he surprised her last time, offered a cheeky grin. "Guess you'll just have to find some other way to show off those muscles for us, huh?" He returned the grin, only to have her take a picture of him.

"And that's going on Instagram! Gotta get something out of this internship!"

Something about the flash reminded him of the events he'd experienced the first time he was here - including that all of Jane's research had been confiscated by SHIELD shortly after he arrived. "You have my deepest gratitude for this repast. Sadly, I am without appropriate resources, but I am happy to answer any questions you have. It might be easier for us both if we return to where you have your research - so that you can refer back to it."

"That sounds... pretty perfect, actually." Jane sounded surprised, and he found himself mourning the relationship they'd once had, that they might never have again. No matter how much love he held for her, he couldn't be abandoning her for years at a time - not when their lifespans were so drastically different in the first place.

Perhaps he could find a way to keep in contact, in spite of the great distance involved...

 

He was glad that he'd rushed them through breakfast when they arrived at her lab to see SHIELD already pillaging her research. Jane was fierce but ineffective at fighting them off - but then Thor saw a face that filled him with both joy and regret.

_Coulson-!_

He stepped forwards and caught the man's eye. "May I have a word?"

Intrigued, the agent cocked his head, examining him, before gesturing to an office. As the two of them entered the office and closed the door, he could hear Jane behind him, yelling angrily about their taking her office and what were they even doing.

Once the door shut, Thor lost some of his geniality. "Agent Coulson, there is much to come, and I would prefer it if we could support each other in this endeavor."

Coulson's bland expression didn't change, but Thor could feel the change in the tension in the room. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me how you know my name."

"That is a very long story, quite unbelievable in the telling, but I assure you - it is regarding your Avengers Initiative. It is vital that we prepare your world for the worst, and soon. There is time, but not enough."

"Information about that is extremely closely guarded - and even with that, the initiative is in its earliest stages. How do you know about it."

Thor gave Coulson his biggest grin, the one that made people underestimate him and think him more brawn than brains. "Because I am - or was - or will be an Avenger.

Along with Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton - who should be somewhere around here, now that I think about it."

He wasn't prepared for the fear or the anger that showed up on Coulson's face as he listed his colleagues, nor for the pistol suddenly being pointed at him but the usually unflappable man.

"Talk."

Hands raised placatingly, he gestured outside of the office. "Would you mind, at least temporarily, advising your agents to leave the research here while we're discussing this?"

With his free hand, Coulson reached up to his earpiece. "All agents, please give Dr. Foster back her research and equipment for the time being."

Coulson then deactivated the earpiece, taking it out, and placing it on the desk between them. "Alright."

Hands still raised, Thor began describing the events that occurred after he left Puente Antigua the first time, his face growing grim with the recollection.

"Your SHIELD was working on the Tesseract with Erik Selvig when my brother used the Tesseract to travel across the vast reaches of space. Under the control of Thanos, my brother destroyed a SHIELD facility, placed further agents under his control, and opened a portal to allow vast armies to descend upon the Earth. Steve Rogers had recently awoken from being frozen in the Arctic-"

"-Captain Rogers?!-"

"Ah yes, I remember you had a particular connection with the Captain! Yes, he was recovered, and a great ally he has been in our years as colleagues! Bruce Banner was brought in due to his expertise with Gamma Radiation, Tony Stark had all of his money, materials, and intelligence available to help, and Natasha did what she does best: interrogation. You died in the conflict-"

"-I died?!-"

"-but don't worry, it was only temporary. Stark took a warhead through the portal and destroyed what he could of Thanos' armies, risking his own life, and then I took my brother, no longer under Thanos' control, and the Tesseract back to Asgard for safekeeping. Over the next few years, you led a team of SHIELD agents - but I don't know very much about that - while I occasionally returned here from Asgard to assist with various threats. At one point, however, a rift formed between the Avengers that remained on

Earth, and my own home fell to Ragnarok - which was the only way to keep my people out of the hands of my half-sister, Hela - and this was the point at which Thanos again chose to strike, seeking out not only the Tesseract, but all of the Infinity Stones. And then... A few people were there, and witnessed it. Thanos snapped his fingers and disappeared, and all around us, people began turning to dust.

"And I have come back in time - though I do not yet recall how - and so I must try to prevent these events from occurring as they have, and see if we have another path before us that will lead to success without so many casualties and so much death..."

Coulson sat there digesting the information Thor had given him.

"Oh, and I met another man that had been frozen in ice for many decades - is that common on Midgard? - and he was quite the fierce warrior before he too shattered into dust. Sergeant Barnes, I believe it was?"

"Barnes?"

"He had another appellation, sounded related to having been frozen so often- the Winter Soldier?"

Coulson blanched. "You're telling me that Steve Rogers' best friend, James Buchanan Barnes, is alive and is the Winter Soldier, the most feared ghost of an assassin the covert community has known for decades?"

"Yes, though it's not his fault. Oh, yes, that was another thing - your Hydra is still around and causing problems. We ran into them a couple of years back, they enhanced a couple of angry young children, but they also had infiltrated SHIELD among other organizations, and almost succeeded at destroying the people they considered the most dangerous."

"Hydra. In SHIELD. I don't know if I can take anymore."

"My apologies - but do you understand the severity of the situation now?"

Agent Coulson sighed. "I think I do. But if Hydra is really in SHIELD - I don't know what to do with this information."

"Stark. He hasn't yet had his experiences with the Chitauri, but it would not surprise me if the risk of otherwordly foes had already crossed his mind."

"He'll be amused if I reach out to him again so soon after leaving him in New York... But what better idea do I have? ...Excuse me, I think I need to make a phone call."

"Of course, friend Coulson." As Thor exited the office, he could hear Coulson dialing the phone.

"JARVIS, please connect me with Mr. Stark. There is something almost unbelievable that I think he would appreciate hearing."

 

Jane ran up to him the moment he was done meeting with the SHIELD agent. "How did you do that? They just stopped taking my books and equipment and computers, and Erik knows these guys and they just don't do that, and wait why is that guy still in my office?"

"Jane, I have done my best to convince this Agent Coulson of the merits of allowing you to keep your research, especially as I am willing to share any relevant information with him as well as yourself. However, the circumstances that make this possible are somewhat outlandish and difficult to believe, so I hope you'll forgive him needing to take some time to figure out his next steps."

"Well, okay, but-"

Thor's back stiffened as one of the agents walked through his peripheral vision. Sitwell. Agent Sitwell. He remembered that agent - and remembered what Natasha and Steve had said about him all that time ago.

He almost grabbed Agent Sitwell by the throat before he caught himself, his back spasming in pain from the aborted movement.

"Are you alright?"

"That agent, he... Just reminded me of someone I once knew, who betrayed those I hold most dear. Nevermind that, though - why don't I start answering your questions about the Bifrost, as I promised you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated 1/15/2019 to add line breaks.


	2. Coulson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter! Let's see how much momentum I can get for this story!  
> This fic is basically going to be ten tons of wish fulfillment and tropes I enjoy. As far as I can tell so far, it's not going to be very shippy - it's a bit ensemble cast and gen at this point - but as I continue writing, who knows what the characters will demand of me.

"JARVIS, please connect me with Mr. Stark. There is something almost unbelievable that I think he would appreciate hearing."  
Under most circumstances, his first call should have been to Hill or Fury, a superior at SHIELD; and yet, under circumstances involving time travel, or whenever the World Security Council was likely to stick their noses in, plausible deniability was one of the best tools to ensure viability of intelligence. Tony Stark, however, was not beholden to any agency, and had the freedom and resources to act on any intelligence he deemed worthy of his time.

  
So - his immediate goal was to ensure that the intelligence Thor had provided was worth Tony's time.

"You have reached the Life Model Decoy of Tony Stark. Please leave a message."

Despite Stark's best attempts otherwise, Phil was absolutely certain that he'd received a response directly from the man himself. "This is... unbelievably urgent, Mr. Stark. I know you might be busy, but it's best we discuss this now."

The sound that echoed through the speakers of Phil's Starkphone was a groan of boredom and distress: I would rather be anywhere but here, doing anything but this. "Agent, I was in the middle of a fantastic dinner. And anyway I had an appointment with your boss in like a week; why would you be reaching out to me now, after they dragged you away so quickly."

Phil sighed, then took a deep breath to compose himself. "I have received intelligence that, singly, I usually would have deemed unbelievable or the result of a security breach. However, given the breadth of the knowledge demonstrated by this person, and how it corresponds to information that I'm only barely at a clearance level to know about, what I've just learned seems to be vitally important."

The line was quiet for a moment, allowing Phil the chance to admire just how clear the connection was over the Stark cell network. "I know you well enough to know that you would never exaggerate, Agent. Hit me; what's going on?"

Phil dragged his hand down his face, but audibly seemed to keep his composure. "You recently said that you'd privatized world peace... What if I told you that we didn't just have threats here, but that we had threats from beyond our solar system?"

"I would tell you that you must have read a pretty good sci-fi novel after having one too many to drink at the Supernanny trivia night."

"This isn't a joke - not this time. Stark... Captain Rogers might still be alive. So might Sergeant Barnes. I know how much this would have meant to your father."

Stark's reply made Phil recoil with how cold it was. "Would he now? ...Are you telling me that my old man was right to send those search parties out into the arctic, year after year? Because let me tell you, he missed a few too many birthdays because of that, so this is really blowing my mind right now."

The tiny office in the defunct used car lot was small and stifling, and Phil paced its confines restlessly. "So on the one hand - I potentially have a figure from Norse legend at the center of my current investigation. This person appeared from nowhere, seems impervious to most weapons, and displays a high degree of knowledge and intelligence. On the other hand, this person could be making up this information wholesale; but something tells me he isn't. Mr. Stark... Whatever you may feel about Captain Rogers, given your father's relationship with the man, I urge you to keep an open mind. I've long suspected that Fury has been attempting to prepare for conflict on a greater scale than we've ever seen as a planetary community; what this man is saying could very well prove him right."

"... How much time do we have?"

"Not long enough. But then, I doubt it would ever be long enough - and yet with this warning, I would say that we have longer than we would have had otherwise."

Over the speaker, he thought he could make out the sound of ice cubes clinking against the side of a glass. "Stark?"

"Yeah, I heard you... Is there anything else I should know?"

For a moment, Phil choked on the response he wanted to give, before blurting it out. "It appears that Hydra might not be as defunct as we'd hoped. That's part of why I reached out to you - given your moral 180° after your imprisonment by the Ten Rings, it seems highly unlikely that you would have consciously sided with Hydra, and knowing your intelligence and intellectual prowess, it seemed certain that you would have the technology necessary to keep this information safe."

"Hydra? ...Well. You've given me a lot to think about, Agent. I'll be looking into this - and while I'll try to keep you in the loop, I'll focus primarily on keeping this information secure."

Phil breathed a sigh of relief; the perception he'd come away with from their previous meetings, that Stark's self-centered nature seemed a front for a suspicious and brilliant mind, seemed to be proving true. "Thank you, Mr. Stark."

 

Phil ended the call, and sat in that stifling office in the New Mexico sun for a moment. So far, in his extensive tenure as a ranking agent in SHIELD, his instincts had never proven him wrong. Those instincts were what had led him to recruit a deaf sharpshooter, and to let that same sharpshooter recruit an enemy honeypot operative, and even with the other teams he occasionally led, Strike Team Delta was one of the more successful teams in the entire organization.

In her stint as Natalie Rushman, it was possible that Natasha had placed the kinds of surveillance bugs that would have picked up on his and Stark's conversation, but under the circumstances, it seemed wise to share that information with Clint directly, so Phil proceeded to the roof - the location with the best sight lines for a sharpshooter, and the best cell tower data signal.

As expected, Clint was there, his eyes scanning for unexpected shifts in the horizon. "Things are going a bit slower than I'd expect from a data retrieval operation. Did something come up?"

Delicately, Phil lowered himself to a seating position on the roof, knowing that while any dirt or other particulate would mar the sleek appearance of his suit, the dry cleaners specifically employed by SHIELD and the other covert alphabet agencies would have no difficuly restoring it to its former glory. Checking to ensure that Clint's hearing aids were in, he explained the entire situation as it had been presented to him.

"I'm starting to root for this guy, Phil."

"So am I, Clint. So am I."

 

As he stepped out of Dr Foster's office, it became clear that the office was the only place in the entire reclaimed used car dealership that had a decent form of climate control, despite being in the middle of New Mexico; while an air conditioner had pumped in cold air the entire time he was talking to Thor, Stark, and Clint, the rest of the dealership hadn't been so lucky, and a number of the agents he'd brought with him had already sweated through their agency-issued suits waiting for further direction from him.  
Knowing the paperwork that awaited him for his lapse in standard protocol, Phil waved them off. "Rather than confiscating her research," he said to the dealership at large, "we shall be working directly with them to investigate these atmospheric events. That being said - we still have the hammer to examine; I expect to see you all at the site of the crater in less than an hour."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there's any wish fulfillment /fix-it you'd like to see, feel free to request it in the comments; I may or may not choose to include it, but spoilers notwithstanding, if I choose not to include a request in future chapters, I'll try to provide a reason.
> 
> Edited 1/15/2019 - thanks to RichardWhereat for the note about the Ten Rings, my memory was faulty! Also caught a couple of typos.


	3. Tony Stark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So far, there aren't that many tags, mostly because this is very much a WIP and I'm not entirely sure what tags will be necessary. That said, when I post a chapter that includes something that should be tagged, I'll do my best to add the appropriate tags.  
> (Part of this comes from having read a one-shot recently that didn't have a Major Character Death tagged, so I had the hope that the angst would resolve happily and then got gut-punched when it did NOT resolve happily. So. Just be assured that I will tag anything along those lines.)

The line hung dead for a moment after Tony disconnected the unexpected call he'd received from Agent Coulson. Given the Fermi Paradox, he'd personally given up on the human race ever meeting aliens and establishing First Contact with them, but with the new revelations about Thor and the wder galactic community, it seemed less like aliens had never visited Earth, and more like any visits they may have made, had been covered up and made as innocuous as possible.

Making Pepper CEO, even if it had been a decision borne of the conviction that his death by the palladium reactor core was inevitable and drawing near, was the best decision he'd ever made. Watching her, he could see that she thrived in this role, now that she had the agency to make decisions about the company without his split attention and sporadic assistance. She had a way with words that allowed her to ruthlessly strike down the most conservative of reactionaries, while still hiding behind such a veil of politeness that they couldn't find fault with her in return; she also had the ability to look at the broader picture painted by the technological successes of the company, in a way he never had before. Now that he didn't have the responsibilities of CEO on his shoulders, he was able to focus where he best thrived: research and development, of both the Iron Man 'prosthesis' suits, and the various technologies, such as solar power and wind farms, in which he'd invested.

The revelations about Rogers' and Barnes' potential survival had landed like a punch in the gut; for the longest time, he'd used his father's failures searching for the good Captain in the Arctic as a way to justify the antagonism on his side of their relationship - he was getting blown off for one of his dad's old war buddies, when he wasn't even out there to be found! But now, knowing that it's possible they would find the man, and not just his corpse... Well, if Aunt Peggy liked him, he couldn't be all bad. And Barnes... He wasn't even sure what to think of that.

Sighing, he returned to the dining room, where Pepper was waiting for him to finish going over the plans for the new Stark Tower he was hoping to build in New York.

"Everything alright?"

"I just had the weirdest conversation I've ever had in my life. With Agent, if you can believe."

"Phil! He's always such a sweetheart. What's going on?"

"Norse gods, aliens, and hibernating superheroes, if he's to be believed."

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Pepper's head tilting to the side as she focused on him more intently. "I've never known him to lie, not when he was deliberately providing information."

Tony dragged his hands down his face, covering his eyes for a moment. "Yeah, that was my thought."

He looked at the holographic wireframe model JARVIS was projecting for them of what they'd finalized for Stark Tower. This wasn't just going to be a headquarters - this was going to be one of the most secure buildings he could conceive of. Too many people had been injured at the Expo - and if it hadn't occurred after hours, the events with Obadiah in California could have had catastrophic consequences, and he didn't want that to happen ever again. 

Sitting at the table, he quirked a smile at Pepper. "But you know what this means, don't you?"

Pepper looked at him, and when she recognized the expression on his face, her own dropped in exasperation. "No. No! We are not setting up another pet project of yours that you're going to just abandon when you get bored of it! Do you know how hard it is to hire scientists to take over R&D for these things? Especially since, for a number of them, the best person for the job just isn't available?"

"But the things Banner could do with the Starkphone given his experience in Radiophysics! And I mean have you seen the papers he's written?"

"I know, I know, you have a crush on a man you haven't seen because of the size of his bibliography," Pepper laughed.

"No. Well yes. I mean it's not about the size, it's about the quality - although. I mean. He has both in spades, but Pepper, really, don't the events of his disappearance just scream some kind of government cover-up to you?"

She smiled fondly at him, and then gestured at the table. "Eat- it's getting cold, and I know how you get; this might be the last time you get a real meal for a while, with how fast your brain is going."

 

Down in the lab, he tried tinkering with the current iteration of his suit, but his thoughts continued to wander. "JARVIS?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Make a note to ask me if I still want to look into building satellites for solar system defense. And then - start running facial recognition for Dr Robert Bruce Banner, and see what you can dig up on him. I kinda want to see if we can rescue our wayward scientist."

"Reminder set about the satellites. Facial recognition and investigation begun for Dr. Robert Bruce Banner."

This settled his focus enough that he was able to sit down at the work bench and keep tinkering with his suit. It wasn't enough to have a suit in a suitcase - Monaco had shown him that. He needed something that could come to him without putting Pepper or Happy, or anyone else, at risk. 

A few hours later, a loud beeping in the lab woke him up, and he sat up from his workbench with a jolt. "I apologize, sir, but this information seemed like it would be useful for a limited amount of time."

"Hit me, JARVIS."

"I was able to get a current hit on Dr. Banner. He debarked from a tanker ship in India; from what I've gathered about his movements so far, he may stay in a given region for a significant amount of time, but doesn't stay in any one town for longer than a couple of days."

Tony exhaled roughly. "Well that's a bit of a predicament. If I just show up in India - kind of hard for me to be inconspicuous, even if I sweet-talk Pepper by meeting with some of our partners there, and I don't want to call the wrong kind of his attention to his presence there... But at the same time... Did you find any evidence that seemed to support my 'government coverup' theory?"

"I would say more than enough to consider the likelihood a certainty. The last classes he was scheduled to teach were taken by a substitute without warning for the remainder of the semester, and what records I could find about the project he was working on at the time of his appearance indicate military funding and participation. Not to mention the timing of his disappearance, compared to the appearances of the being called the 'Hulk'..."

"Wait - Ross called us to help out with that, right? Make those 'Hulkbusters' for him? Man, that just makes me even more glad that I demolished his favorite bar..."

"Indeed, sir."

"Well - let's make up a care package for the guy. Keep tabs on him in case this takes a bit longer than we're expecting, but start by putting together a Starkphone and a credit card. I might be working with SHIELD, and with Agent, but it seems like even a worse crime having a mind like that on the run without resources. Just because I could make a flying suit of armor in a cave with limited access to materials, doesn't mean I can't make a far better flying suit of armor with better access to those materials."

"Of course sir. Shall I include a bottle of scotch?"

"That may be my gift of choice when trying to convince someone to come play in my extensive R&D department, but I think it might not be the right choice right now... But maybe include a bright green - the Hulk was green, right? - bright green invitation to Stark Manor, transportation and other expenses covered, security and privacy assured. Even if he doesn't believe it, best to start as we'd like to continue."

 

_A couple days later in India_

Bruce Banner woke to the sound of tapping on the door of the room he'd rested in for the night. Opening the door, he heard the slap of sandals against the street, but only saw a box tied in bright green ribbon.

Darting a glance around, he saw noone, and pulled the box into his room. Warily, he regarded it for a moment. 

'Well,' he thought, 'nothing can hurt me, might as well open it.'

Untying the ribbon and opening the box, the first thing he saw was a slip of paper resting on the top, the same bright green as the ribbon.

_"To Dr Bruce Banner AKA the Hulk AKA the person who wrote the sexiest paper ever written on radiophysics-_  
_-You are cordially invited out of hiding and exile to come to the Stark Mansion in New York and continue your research in civilization! Transportation and other expenses covered, security and privacy assured (and I'd be happy to help you work on your little green problem)_  
_If you'd like to come, just find the cell phone and call speed dial 1; otherwise, the contents of this package are free for you to use - including the credit card and identification. It's under another name so don't you worry about anyone tracking you (who isn't me, anyway)."_

The card had the initials TS in shimming gold ink in the lower right corner of the page.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" _  
_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regarding my previous note about requests - please stick to things you'd like for me to fix; I'm expecting this fic to be primarily gen / ensemble fic.

**Author's Note:**

> So right now this fic is Unbeta'd. If you notice any typos, pleeeease feel free to let me know in the comments - I want to get on top of fixing those ASAP. If you notice timeline inconsistencies, please feel free to bring them up, but I may leave them as is if I feel like it suits the fic as it stands- call it artistic license. 
> 
> I really appreciate all the kudos and comments!


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